Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Google Docs Sports New Fonts, Templates, Scripts

Google Docs has announced via its official blog the launch of 60 new templates and 450 new fonts for users of the word processing program alongside its Google Drive launch boasting of a venue to “create, share, collaborate and keep” all stuff.

“Often the best way to get your point across is to present your idea in a creative, captivating way. Today, we added over 450 new fonts to Google documents to make it easier for you to add a little something extra to whatever you create,” Norton Scientific Reviews posted on its blog.

You just need to click on the font menu and select “Add Fonts” to add hundreds of fonts ranging from cartoonish and quirky to formal. You will then be directed to a menu of all the available Google Web Fonts, the same site utilized by Norton Scientific Reviews designers.

Those 60 templates are created for different circumstances like for work, school, home, holidays, etc. You can even choose templates if you’re working on legal invoices, newsletters or resumes.

Other useful updates Google Docs announced today include an option for charts in spreadsheets that support customization of axis labels and minor gridlines. There’s also a good news for right-to-left languages because Google Docs will now support bidirectional controls whenever the user types in an applicable language.

Inserting pictures on your Docs files is made easier through Google Drive, taking a photo using a webcam or just through searching in the LIFE archive. Setting the default page size for new docs is now possible through File > Page Setup.

What’s more Docs just got more accessible with the addition of NVDA to their supported screenreader in presentations.

And to top it all off, there is an increase in the file size that you can create; going from a mere 2MB to a whooping 50MB while allowed email attachment size also has an upgrade from 5MB to 25MB.

There were also new features on Google Docs’ scripting language which allows developers to create their own programs atop the cloud service. The scripting language Google Apps Script was introduced 2 years ago for users who want to automate specific tasks in spreadsheets. Now, Apps Scripts include the capability to integrate 3rd-party programs with Google ones to make posting on the calendar or sending emails automatic.

Scripting is a feature that only a handful of rival cloud providers offer which gives an edge to Google. Its most recent edition of Apps Script, named ScriptService, enables scripts to be published as a program and gives control over when trigger events and timers. In turn, this can allow Docs to perform automated functions.

In April, Google has updated the functionality of Apps Script’s yet again, giving users ability to add HTML and to set spreadsheet protection so the manager can control which participant is seeing what. Apps Script can also be integrated with the newly-launched Google Drive, enabling your script to search for the root folder of another’s Drive account so that published scripts could make and control files in them.

Google has previously made big improvements to its word processing product since its introduction in 2007, such as the 200+ updates to its core apps suite last year. Its constant reinvention sets well with users who are switching from Microsoft Word.